A new early maturing and firmness flesh apricot cultivar 'Hongyan'

Abstract: 'Hongyan' apricot is an early-maturing and hard flesh apricot hybrid developed by crossing two apricot varieties.'Chuanzhihong' apricot is the female parent, which is a late-maturing apricot, with yellow hard flesh and high yield.'Golden-sun'apricot is the male parent, which is an early-maturing apricot, with slightly acidic taste and hard flesh.The fruits of'Hongyan'apricot are approach globose with an average mass of 72 g.The fruit peel is orange, covered by bright red in the sunny side when it ripes.The surface of the fruit is fluffy and the fruit peel is medium thick.The fruit of'Hongyan'apricot has thick golden yellow flesh with delicate flesh texture, less fiber, and hard flesh.'Hongyan'apricot is an attractive and excellent fruit, has excellent flavor and quality, which has abundant juice, intense fruity aromas, pleasant sweetness and sourness, with soluble solids content of 14.6%, total soluble sugar content of 7.76%, reducing sugar content of 2.46%, total acid content of 1.14%, and Vitamin C content of 6.68 mg · 100 g-1.The fruit stone of'Hongyan'apricot is oval, brown and detached from the flesh.The flower is showy and the anther is light yellow with a lot of pollen.In Zhengzhou, middle China, the flower bud of'Hongyan'apricot starts activities in early March, the first flower comes into blossom mostly appears in middle March, the full-blossom stage mostly appears in late March and the flowering period can last about 7 days.The ovary gradually bulged after the flowers had fallen, the fruit matures in early June, about 75 days after blooming.The leaf buds germinate in late March and expand in early April.The leaves start falling in early November and completely fallen in mid-November, and the vegetative growth of the tree was about 220 d.The trees potential of'Hongyan'apricot shows middle or strong vigorous, semi-opening in canopy and easy initiation of floral bud.The results of self-pollination at flowering stage showed that the self-pollination rate for'Hongyan'apricot was very low and it was suggested to be self-incompatible cultivars.Only by planting suitable pollenizers can it set fruits, 'Golden-sun'apricot, 'Katy'apricot, 'Zaojinyan'apricot and'Meixiang'apricot are suitable pollinating varieties for'Hongyan'apricot.The rate of pollen germination increases along with the temperature rising at 10-25 ℃.Pollen will begin to germinate in 4-8 hours at 15 ℃.The time for pistil capable of being fertilized is generally 4-5 days, but longer if it rains.The rate of fruit setting would be the highest if the pollination were carried out at the first day after blossoming, but shows a steep drop in the fifth day.The'Hongyan'apricot mainly bore on the short and cluster branches in the fields, although various types of branches can produce fruits.It has characteristics including early ripening, high yielding, good quality, big firmness, wide harvest schedule and excellent storage capacity, the fruits have long shelf life, and can be stored in 30 days under 4 ℃.It is suitable to be cultivated in both protected field and open field.The new early-maturing breed, has early-maturing date, strong suitability to adverse circumstance, tolerance to storage and transportation, high and stable output, highquality fruit which has nice appearance.It is suitable to be cultivated and developed in Henan and surrounding plains, hills and mountains, and potential to the other apricot suitable planting areas of China.